


Wherever You Go (I'll Follow)

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Meetings, Pre-Relationship, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 17:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16309370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: Scavenging on Jakku meant years of living from day to day, meal to meal, living in the hope of getting out. Poe knew he could be a hell of a pilot, just like the mother he could barely remember, if only he got the chance.That chance came a bit unexpectedly in the form of an astromech droid and its Jedi pilot.





	Wherever You Go (I'll Follow)

**Author's Note:**

> For Damerey Week Day 1, reimagined first meeting. Thanks to my RL friend for the idea of doing a damerey role reversal, and also for help with the title!

“One portion?” Poe exclaimed, shoving the offered rations back across the counter. “Bantha shit! That’s worth at least four, and you’ve given me four before.”

Unkar Plutt raised his large shoulders in an unimpressed shrug. “One. That’s all.”

Poe leaned forward, ignoring the smell. “Come on, man, cut me a break, yeah? It’s hotter than hell and I scraped my ass in a fall finding this. Cleaned it up real nice, too. You’ll get a good price and it doesn’t need any more work.”

“Keep running your big mouth and I’ll cut it to a half portion.”

Sighing, Poe grabbed his take and turned around. Kriffing slimeball. 

He trudged back to his speeder, tucking the sealed packets into the storage bag hooked to the back before sitting astride it and starting the engine, gliding over the sands back to what passed for home. If he could only earn enough to book passage off this hunk of rock; he was sure he could be something, a real mechanic, a starship pilot, if only he could get out. 

But no one on Jakku gave anything away for free and Poe had yet to find someone willing to give him a chance. Came close a few times, but it always fell through. Maybe it was time to try his luck at one of the bigger outposts, wait for a spacer to come through and try to talk his way into a ride. Poe was handy and he was willing to do a hell of a lot to put Jakku behind him.

There had been a pilot once, years ago, when Poe was young, not long after the pirates had got to Granddad. He had been everything Poe wanted to be, like a tall vision out of a story, his crooked smile and the worn leather blaster belt around his hips telling of adventure, and Poe had tried to stow away on his ship just to get to wherever he was going. 

The pilot had found him, of course, and said he had no room for smart-mouthed kids, no matter how good they said they could fly. He’d told Poe about the naval academies on the big worlds, though, started over in the aftermath of the fall of the Empire, and Poe had dreamed of them ever since. 

He had just never made it to one.

Evening was falling as Poe swooped the speeder in to a stop, pushing it out of sight. It was keyed to his fingerprints but leaving anything in the open on Jakku was a bad idea. The AT-AT he called home had been a good find a couple of years ago, when Poe had needed to move on and keep a roof over his head. He’d fixed it up to include locked storage areas in addition to living space. Nothing fancy, of course, but he had a bed and a little spot for cooking and sitting, plus an old computer console he’d scavenged and rigged up. Granddad had been good with mechanics, just like Poe’s mom, and everything he’d taught Poe had helped keep him alive in the years since Granddad’s passing. 

One of the best things Poe had ever scavenged was the flight simulator loaded up onto the console. Poe spent hours and hours on it, the closest he had ever come to real flying. 

He separated his single portion carefully, keeping some for his breakfast in the morning, and then heated up what would have to do for dinner on his tiny stove. It would be enough to quiet the grumble in his stomach for a couple of hours, anyway. 

He took his plate of rehydrated protein and bread outside his AT-AT, sitting down in the shade of it to eat while he watched the sun go down. He pictured the path of a ship flying overhead, the blink into hyperspace, and imagined himself in the cockpit. His mother had been an ace pilot; Poe was certain he would be, too. It was in his blood.

Beneath his shirt, lying against his chest, was the cool metal of his father’s wedding ring. Poe rolled it between his fingers, the only thing he had left to remember his family by. His father had died in the sands of Jakku, and his mother high above. Sometimes when Poe found scraps of starfighters he wondered if they could be pieces of his mother’s destroyed A-wing, but he supposed that was a bit morbid. 

One day, he thought, fingering the ring. One day he would fly away from this rock.

-

“Hold out for at least two portions apiece,” Poe advised Duru as they leaned their heads together at one of the tables near Plutt’s outpost. “He’ll try to cheat you down to a half each, maybe even a quarter, but they’re worth two. You’ll get two; don’t give in.”

“Thanks, Poe,” Duru said, clutching his scavenge, and Poe smiled at him.

He glanced around, eyeing the regulars, judging who he could help without getting his teeth knocked in for his effort. Maybe Alli; she was new and prickly but needed to learn, not to mention she was doing a shoddy job of cleaning. 

“Dameron!” Plutt shouted, and Poe changed his course, giving Plutt a cheeky wave and jogging over to his speeder in self-defense instead. 

He’d find Alli tomorrow. Plutt would just give her a hard time on purpose now if he saw Poe helping her. Plutt kriffing hated Poe.

The feeling was mutual, to be honest.

The path from Niima to his AT-AT was so familiar by now he could have made it in his sleep, which was why it was so surprising to see something new. It took Poe a moment to parse out what he was seeing, squinting against the late afternoon sun, pushing up his goggles for a moment. A round ball, orange and white, rolling over the sand.

An astromech droid.

He put away his speeder and then ran over the hill to where the droid was making its somewhat dejected trek, lost and alone. It came to a stop when it noticed Poe, fixing him with a large optic sensor, opening a compartment in its body and brandishing some sort of taser. 

“Hey, whoa,” Poe said, raising his hands. “I’m not gonna hurt you. Promise.”

The droid hesitated, looking Poe up and down. It put away the taser and continued to watch Poe.

“Buddy,” Poe said, hand on his hip, “you definitely don’t belong here. Scavengers around here are likely to try and snatch you up to sell.”

_ [I am on an important, top secret mission!]  _ the droid beeped with some intensity.  _ [I must find my partner!] _

Resisting the urge to smile at the little droid’s loud insistence about his ‘top secret’ mission, Poe said, “Your partner? Well, it’s pretty unlikely they’re all the way out here, and if they are, doesn’t bode well for them.” He wondered what kind of mission an astromech and his pilot could have on Jakku. He wondered if they came from the Navy. 

_ [Partner-Rey escaped in her X-wing but it was damaged. I am to wait for her to find me.]  _ The droid drooped a little, the binary seeming more depressed.  _ [There was fighting.] _

Poe squatted down, resting his hand on the droid’s curved dome top. “She’ll probably be okay. You seem resourceful; I bet she can handle herself, too. You can wait here with me; I’ll take you into Niima with me tomorrow. Better chance of finding her there.”

Perking up, the droid burbled enthusiastically.  _ [A good plan! Partner-Rey will find me there!] _

“Yeah, buddy,” Poe said, chuckling. “I’m Poe. What should I call you?”

_ [My designation is Beebee-Ate.] _

“Beebee-Ate. Good to meet you.”

_ [It is also good to meet you, Friend-Poe.] _

“Friend Poe,” Poe repeated, grinning. “Come on, then, Friend Beebee-Ate. I’ll get the sand out of your joints. Don’t want your Rey to think I mistreated you.”

BB-8 trundled happily after Poe, following him into the AT-AT, making for surprisingly pleasant company.

-

It was even better than the Navy. BB-8 and his Rey were apparently with the Resistance, Leia Organa’s rebel freedom fighters, standing against the First Order. Poe didn’t get much news out here and he didn’t know much about the First Order, but he knew that they sounded like the Empire and his parents had died fighting the Empire, so Poe wasn’t a fan, to put it mildly. He also knew that Granddad said Leia Organa was the best sort of hero, the sort that never give up, even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard.

The way BB-8 told it, Rey was the best pilot in the galaxy and could use the Force, too. Poe thought she sounded pretty great, and he hoped she might be interested in a scavenger who was good with his hands and knew his way around a ship. A wrecked ship, anyway. This felt like Poe’s chance, his chance to fly away, his chance to be a real pilot, and he hoped that in the middle of her mission, Rey might be willing to help him.

Maybe Poe could join the Resistance, too. His parents were nothing more than a handful of hazy memories and Granddad’s old stories, but Poe thought he might like to be like them, fighting for what was right.

He didn’t have a kid to orphan, so that was something.

It turned out that BB-8 talked a lot, once you gave him an opening. Poe wasn’t too sure the droid should actually be sharing so much about where he came from and about Rey, but he supposed maybe a little bit of kindness had earned him BB-8’s trust. He wouldn’t say what his top secret mission was, though, and he wouldn’t say where he and Rey had been headed. To the Resistance’s base, Poe assumed, but that could be anywhere.

Away from here sounded good to Poe.

-

He and BB-8 never quite made it to the Niima in the morning, though, was the thing.

He came out of his AT-AT in the cooler hours of the morning, before the sun reached its zenith, BB-8 following him, ready to go, when he heard it. 

The sound of energy beams and missiles firing, like in his simulator, but real. The hum of starfighters, also real. So much louder than his simulator.

Poe shaded his eyes and looked up, and then he saw it.

An X-wing, and three TIE fighters, high above, swooping and swerving, engaged in combat.

BB-8 was chattering in excited anxiety beside Poe, the only bit of binary that stood out his exclamations of,  _ [Partner-Rey! Partner-Rey!] _

“That’s her?” Poe said, and whistled. She was a damn good pilot, as she caught the wing of one TIE, sending it reeling down to crash somewhere in the distant desert, before coming around and hitting a second clear in the center. It exploded in a fireball in the atmosphere.

There wasn’t anything Poe could do but watch the fierce engagement and hope Rey would come out on top. He knew it had to be worse for BB-8, who was obviously so fond of the Resistance pilot, and who was likely used to sitting in the X-wing’s astromech socket and helping its pilot. 

Poe winced as he watched Rey take a hit, but she somehow managed to turn her ship sharply and give her foe better than she’d got, taking it out. Poe whooped and BB-8 chirped in thrilled relief before racing off as fast as his round body could traverse the sand, over to where they could see the X-wing coming in for a less than elegant landing across the sandy dunes. 

“Hey, wait,” Poe called out, running after the droid, slipping a little in the sand. 

It took them maybe five minutes to reach the X-wing. It was smoking, a slim figure in a leather jacket and fitted pants tucked into tall black boots standing beside it and fussing. She turned at the sound of BB-8’s frantic chirping, her face clearly brightening.

“Beebee-Ate! You found me!” She met the astromech halfway, kneeling on the sand and laughing at the fast-paced stream of binary, fixing his antenna. “What? Poe?” She glanced over, her eyes catching on Poe. She frowned a little.

“Hi,” Poe said, and rubbed the back of his neck. “He means me. I’m Poe. Poe Dameron.” 

“Beebee-Ate says you helped him,” Rey said, standing, wary, her eyes slightly narrowed, her posture guarded. She was younger than he’d imagined, younger than Poe, dark hair and big eyes and a sweet face. She had a double belt around her waist and hips, a lightsaber at one hip and a holstered blaster at the other. There were freckles across her nose and Poe wasn’t smitten, he wasn’t. 

Poe shrugged. “Just gave him somewhere to stay. A little oil.”

Her smile didn’t reappear and she was obviously assessing him, but she seemed less hostile than curious. “I’m Rey.”

“I know.” When Rey’s head tilted a bit as if in a question, Poe added, “Beebee-Ate told me. He told me a lot about you.”

Rey looked over at BB-8. “Nothing he shouldn’t have been telling a stranger, I hope.”

BB-8 chirped indignantly, protesting the accusation.  _ [Poe is a friend! I protect the Resistance!] _

That made Rey meet Poe’s eyes again, still assessing. “I’m sorry we troubled you. We’ll be out of your way as soon as possible.”

“I’m gonna point out that your ship doesn’t look like it’ll be in the air anytime soon,” Poe said. “I could help you with that.”

Rey arched an eyebrow. “You’ll help me?”

“Sure. I’m a scavenger; I’m good with ships and I know where you can get parts.”

“I’m sure you must have noticed I’ve got… beings… looking for me.”

Poe laughed. “What, you mean those TIEs? Yeah, I figured you’re pretty popular, and not in a good way. All the more reason to let me help you.” 

“It would put you in danger, too.”

“Yeah, well, it’s been boring around here lately. Or all the time, honestly. I could use the excitement.”

Rey smiled finally, just a slight upward tilt of one corner of her mouth, like she was too reluctantly amused by Poe to help it. “I need to fix the hyperdrive, and they damaged my thrusters.”

It was weirdly gratifying to earn Rey’s acceptance. “Won’t be as quick as you’d like, then. I can take you into Niima and deal with Plutt; he’ll try to cheat you.”

“I can handle myself.”

“Didn’t mean to imply you couldn’t. Plutt’s just a mean bastard. I’m used to him.”

“I’m used to mean bastards.” Rey’s grin was a little bit terrifying, a little bit worrisome, and maybe just a little bit sexy, too. “Is there anything to be done with my ship? This is a planet of scavengers, right?”

“Not until we get to Niima, unfortunately. I don’t have the means to move it, or protect it. Not without more time than you’ve got. Maybe you could leave Beebee-Ate to watch it? But I can’t guarantee someone won’t try to scavenge him, too.”

BB-8 beeped in concern but then said he was willing to guard Rey’s X-wing until she returned.

Rey hesitated, kneeling down to meet the droid on his level. “You’ll be okay?” When she got an affirmative chirp, she patted his dome. “Okay. Maybe you’d better let me have that thing I gave you.”

BB-8 opened up a small compartment and presented Rey with what looked like a data chip. She stowed it carefully on her person and Poe knew better than to inquire about it.

“My speeder’s back by my AT-AT,” Poe said, gesturing, and Rey walked by his side.

“Your AT-AT?”

“It’s where I live. Found it, fixed it up. Jakku’s filled with wreckage, you know. From the battle.”

“Right.” Rey was watching him as they walked. “And you live here? Scavenging? By yourself?”

“Since pirates robbed my granddad, killed him. That was years ago. My parents were rebels, died in the battle.”

“Sorry.” She sounded like she meant it. “You couldn’t ever…”

“What, leave?” Poe chuckled. “Been trying to for years. Could never make enough to buy passage and no one’s been willing to hire me on for work.”

Rey gnawed at her lip, like this knowledge pained her somehow. “That’s not fair. No one should have to grow up like that. Especially when your parents…”

“They were heroes,” Poe agreed. “I just never really knew them. Granddad always said they did it for me, so I could grow up in a galaxy that was better than what they’d had, but mostly I wish I’d had them instead.”

“Maybe you can… come with me,” Rey said, and Poe gazed at her in surprise. He hadn’t even had to suggest it himself; he hadn’t expected her wariness of him to wear off quite so quickly. Maybe BB-8’s good opinion counted for a lot.

“To the Resistance?” he asked.

“I can at least get you off Jakku, if you don’t want to join us. I can drop you on some other world, and you can do whatever you want.” She paused, chewing at her lip again. “But you could come with me, too. Beebee-Ate likes you.”

Poe smiled, and wished BB-8 wasn’t the only one who liked him. “He’s special. I like him, too.”

“He’s helped me through more scrapes than I can count.”

Once they got to the AT-AT, Poe made Rey wait while he found a length of cloth he could use to wrap around her face and neck, to protect her from the sun and sand. She submitted with a roll of her eyes and a trace of bafflement she was unable to hide, perhaps surprised that Poe would care enough. He considered it only a measure of decency, not to mention he didn’t like the thought of Rey suffering if her face got burned. 

She sat behind him on the speeder, hands on his hips, and they swooped off to Niima.

-

They did make it to Niima, but nothing quite went to plan.

Poe had only just pointed out Unkar Plutt, honestly kind of looking forward to see how Rey might deal with him, when Rey said, “Oh,  _ kriff, _ ” and grabbed Poe by the hand, yanking him out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by a targeted fire from a TIE fighter overhead.

“You’re  _ really  _ popular, aren’t you,” Poe said, letting Rey drag him along.

They ducked inside a doorway in the bazaar and Rey said, “There’s no time for my X-wing, where can I get a ship?”

Poe pointed over at Plutt’s offerings. “I expect you’ll have to steal one. More legal routes will probably end with us shot to pieces first.”

Rey nodded once and grabbed Poe’s hand again, just long enough to get him to come with her, and raced off where he had shown her. “Always wanted to steal a ship! What’s going to fly the best?”

“I’d recommend the quadjumper,” Poe said, just as said ship went up in a fireball. He swore and changed direction, avoiding stray debris.

“That’s the  _ Millennium Falcon _ !” Rey called out, heading for a big junky freighter.

“Plutt was real proud of that one when he got it, but it’s trash.”

“It’s the  _ Falcon _ ,” Rey said, and ran up the boarding ramp.

Poe could only follow, wondering what was so special about this ship that Rey knew it by sight. “Can you get this into the air?” he asked as he ran after her down the corridor into the cockpit.

She glanced back at him only long enough to grace him with a supremely annoyed expression of disdain. “I’m the best pilot in the Resistance. I can fly the  _ Falcon _ .”

“It was more a knock on the ship, not you.”

Rey jumped into the pilot’s chair, flipping switches on the console. “I’ve got this. There should be some weapons; think you can handle that?”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Poe said, and ducked back out into the corridor, picking a direction and hoping it would take him where he wanted.

It did, right into the gunwell. He hopped into the maneuverable seat and situated himself, finding a comm system and putting on the headset. “Whoa,” he said, losing his balance slightly as the ship jerked into the air.

“Taking off!” Rey’s voice said into his ear, faintly crackly from static.

“Thanks for the advance warning,” Poe said, while Rey ignored his sarcasm. 

He found out the weapons at least still fired smoothly, fitting his hands to the controls and swinging about to take care of one TIE as Rey brought the ship higher, soaring up over Niima. 

Poe whooped with glee, almost surprised at the thrill shivering through him as the enemy TIE exploded, adrenaline coursing through his veins. In this moment, fleeing for his life with Rey, fingers on the trigger of a very large weapon, he felt somehow more alive than he had ever had before.

And, kriff, but she was a hell of a pilot. He was almost sorry that manning the weapons meant he couldn’t simply enjoy her prowess in the air, her light touch, the smooth, effortless way she wove through the air. He wasn’t sure if the  _ Falcon  _ was a better ship than he had given it credit for or if Rey was just that good.

“I can’t lock on the last one!” Poe yelled as they headed over the ships’ graveyard, flying low. 

“I’m going to give you the perfect shot,” Rey promised, and flew into the gaping open end of the wreck of a Super Star Destroyer.

Poe swore, certain he was about to die and yet kind of loving every nerve-wracking second. Rey was possibly crazy and he was possibly a little bit in love with her. Just a little. The tiniest bit.

It was lonely on Jakku, all right?

Somehow Rey maneuvered through every treacherous twist and turn of the interior without smashing them into the walls or jutting debris, almost like she could see the blueprint in her head. Poe himself had scavenged through most of this thing and even he wasn’t sure he could have navigated it this well, certainly not while piloting a freighter.

Damn but he yearned to have the chance to get himself behind the controls of a real starship and fly through a maze like this.

The TIE was still on them, barely firing on them now as though the pilot was more concerned with not crashing himself. Poe got off a couple of shots but to no avail; he hoped Rey would get him the opportunity she had said she could.

“Get ready!” she yelled. “I’m going to fly straight up when we get out and then come back down around; don’t blow it!”

“Don’t blow it,” Poe repeated, irked, as they came out into the Jakku sun. Up they went, then down in a rush that nearly took Poe’s breath away. The ship turned quicker than seemed possible; there was the TIE.

Poe fired.

“Yes!” he crowed, hearing the echo of Rey’s joy in his eardrums.

The  _ Falcon  _ soared back out over the desert.

Flinging the communication headset down, Poe jumped up and headed swiftly back into the cockpit, where Rey glanced over at him with a mischievous little smile. 

“Thanks for not blowing it,” she said.

“You’re a fucking hell of a pilot,” Poe enthused, and she laughed.

“Thanks. You’re not so bad a gunner considering it was your first time. It was your first time, wasn’t it?”  

“I don’t generally get chased by the First Order, so yeah, it was.”

With as fast as the  _ Millennium Falcon  _ could fly, even in atmosphere, it took hardly any time at all for them to hone in on Rey’s crash site. Poe could see the tiny form of BB-8 waiting for them, standing careful watch by the X-wing just as he’d said he would.

Rey brought the ship down to a hover, lowering the ramp, while Poe waved BB-8 in. “Come on, buddy. Change of plans.”

The droid whistled and came onboard, so Poe called over to Rey that they were good to go. He walked back to the cockpit, BB-8 thumping along the corridor behind him. 

Rey watched Poe from the corner of her eye as he dropped down into the co-pilot’s seat. “I could take you wherever you want,” she said. “Another outpost? The next planet in the system?”

Poe hesitated, his eyes on the sprawling Jakku desert. Rey hadn’t broken atmosphere yet, like she was waiting to know he wanted to go.

In truth, Poe had been ready to go years ago. He only needed to accept the opportunity being presented to him.

“You said…” He hesitated. “That offer to join the Resistance still on the table?”

BB-8 beeped shrilly from behind their seats, way too much enthusiasm for a droid.

Rey nodded. “It means that getting chased by the First Order will be nothing but a normal day, and we’re too broke to pay.”

“I’ve spent most of my life hoping to make enough for my next meal, so the pay thing really isn’t a deterrent.” Poe didn’t need pay, only a place to call home and food in his belly. 

Freedom to fly, and the means to do it. Starfighters that actually left the ground.

And, maybe, a cause. A cause that went beyond surviving. Building a better galaxy, like the one his parents had fought for, the one they had died for.

“I’d like to go wherever you’re going,” Poe said. “If that’s okay.”

Rey grinned at him, approving, like she was glad he was living up to what she had hoped, and flipped another switch. “Resistance it is,” she said, and took the  _ Falcon  _ up, up, up, into the stars, beauty like Poe hadn’t seen since he was almost too small to remember. 

“One thing,” Rey said, inputting coordinates into the navigation system. “This was only half my mission. Got a contact to find, a defected stormtrooper. You up for your first Resistance mission?”

Poe watched the black of space through the viewport, the flash of stars. His father’s ring felt light against his chest.

“Wherever you’re going,” he said again, and wondered that anything could feel so right.


End file.
